KIEV, April 20. /TASS/. The People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) announced that a battalion commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been killed in a precision strike near Donetsk on Tuesday.

"The military leadership of Ukraine is trying to conceal the fact that the 2nd mechanized battalion of the 54th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are suffering heavy casualties and surrender en masse," the official spokesperson of the DPR People’s Militia said in a statement.

"Also, I would like to inform that battalion commander Stets Sergey Olegovich was killed by a precision strike today," he said.

The DPR People’s Militia also rejected Ukrainian General Staff’s report that the Ukrainian military managed to regain control over the settlement of Maryinka, earlier taken over by DPR forces.

The situation on the line of contact in Donbass escalated on February 17. The DPR and LPR reported the most intense shelling from Ukraine in recent months. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his recognition of the DPR and LPR’s sovereignty. Russia recognized the republics within the borders that have been established by their constitutions (the administrative borders of Donetsk and Lugansk regions at the beginning of 2014).

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country. DPR and LPR started their operation to liberate their territories, which are under Kiev's control.